Steamie Stakeout
Steamie Stakeout is the first episode of the first season of Sudrian Stories Plot On the Mainland, there lived a small shunter named Diesel. You probably already know who he is! He's a big troublemaker who despises steam engines, he often goes to great lengths to prove that steam engines are inferior, notably when he goes to Sodor. One day, Sir Topham Hatt came to the sheds, "Due to Paxton's recent accident, I'll have to send Diesel in to do his jobs." he said. The engines groaned at the idea. "Diesel's nothing but trouble!" Henry said. "He doesn't even like us!" James added. "He thinks we're just scrap metal!" Thomas finished. Of course, Edward, being a kind and old engine, just sat there. "Now, we all know that Diesel means well, he just doesn't really want friends." Edward explained, although the other engines really didn't want to agree with that. "Alright, Diesel it is. Bye!" Sir Topham Hatt said, he walked off to his car and left afterwards. However, the engines were still confused by how Edward could accept Diesel, no matter what he did. "Why are you always so kind to Diesel?" Emily asked. Edward sighed, and replied with "After everything I've dealt with over the years, I've learned to just bring happiness and friendship wherever I go." With that, Edward left for the morning goods on his branch line. "How does he do that?" James whispered to Henry and Gordon, who didn't know the answer either. Upon arriving at Knapford Yards, Edward saw Diesel was shunting his train already. Whistling a friendly hello, Diesel simply ignored the old engine. By the time Edward had turned around, he arrived at Knapford to see Diesel was already there with his train. "You're late, old timer." He oiled. "No I'm not, this train doesn't leave until 7:00, I still have ten minutes!" Edward replied. Diesel chuckled to himself, "Diesels are better, they always leave early." he said. Edward just smiled and said, "If I leave early, that means the signalmen won't know where I am, and either way, the guard is running late. Again." "Just leave without him." Diesel suggested. "No, he'll come eventually." Edward finished. A few minutes later, the guard came, and Edward and his train left for Edward's branch line. As he left, Diesel eyed the blue engine as he left. Diesel had always wanted to get Edward into trouble, but with the mix of his kindness and intelligence, that was near impossible. Diesel slowly crept out of the station, he wanted to find something bad about Edward. Going down the line, Diesel tried to see if he dropped some goods, or ran over an animal, or something like that. "Darn it!" Diesel said, the search was not working at all. Meanwhile, Edward was making good time, the trucks were too tired to really want to bother him, and the driver and fireman were bickering as usual. "Face it, man! Season 3's never coming! They keep on saying it's delayed to stall them!" The driver said to the fireman. "I believe in a third season! I know it will happen!" The fireman retorted. Edward chuckled, he really didn't understand why humans always argued. He was distracted by his crew, thus he had not even seen Diesel roll up beside him, trying to get some info. I know he's bound to have done bad stuff before. Diesel thought, but he knew that following Edward wouldn't be a good way, and he left. "Was that Diesel?" Edward's driver asked, finally ignoring the argument. Rolling back into Knapford, Murdoch saw the shunter. "Ah, Diesel! Do you think you could shunt my-" "I'm busy!" Diesel interrupted as he passed by the orange tender engine. A moment later, Philip came up to Murdoch. "Hi, orange engine! I like your livery! It's so cool! Did you know that I beat Gordon in a race before!?" As Philip kept on rambling on, Murdoch quietly whispered "I just wanted some peace and quiet..." Later on in the day, Diesel stalked Edward as he looked for his coaches. "Which ones could they be?" Edward pondered. Going around the yard, Edward finally found the correct coaches, and he coupled up to them. But, he accidentally bumped into a tanker on the way out. "Ow!" The tanker shrieked. "Oh, sorry!" Edward apologized, "Who put you out here?" As Edward shunted the tanker into a siding, the tanker explained. "Diesel left the yards for no apparent reason, and he left a few of us trucks lying around." "Why would he do that?" Edward asked, only for Diesel to pop up. Edward jumped, not seeing Diesel pull in. "You're running late! The passengers are waiting!" He announced. "Oh well, they'll have to wait. On this railway, the policy is 'safety first', and I'm preventing an accident." Edward explained, and the tanker gave Diesel a glare. Pulling onto the platform, Edward explained the predicament, and the passengers understood, they headed down Edward's branch line, and arrived on schedule. Upon hearing this, Diesel was enraged. "How does he do it?! He's like a robot or something!" He shouted. His driver laughed, "No conspiracies." he chuckled. As he arrived at Tidmouth Sheds, Edward was ready to sleep, but the engines were complaining about Diesel. "He never shunted my train!" James moaned. "Mine either!" Thomas replied. BoCo was passing by, however, and spoke up. "He left the yards at approximately 7:15 according to security footage. Only if we knew what he was thinking." Edward looked down at his buffers, wondering why Diesel went missing. The engines all gasped, Edward just noticed that he had tuned his friend out, and everyone was looking at him. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Asked Edward. "Me and the police went searching for Diesel, and security footage often shows him following you. We think Diesel's trying to sabotage your reputation." BoCo explained. "Nonsense!" Edward replied, "Why would he want to do that?" "He's jealous?" Emily suggested. No engine would really know why Diesel would sabotage Edward, but they all went to sleep anyways. The next day, Edward decided to find Diesel to put things right. He went to Knapford Yard. Greeting the engines, Edward eventually found him in a shed. "Good morning, Diesel." Edward cheerfully said, although he was ignored. "Uh... you did good shunting yesterday." "Thanks." Diesel muttered. With that, he left to shunt Edward's morning train as usual. "I need to make him look bad, but how?" Diesel said to nobody in particular, but the trucks still looked at him like he was clinically insane. Despite working on the railway for over 100 years, Edward has a pretty good record when it came to the railway, only having a few accidents, and he was very well behaved. Diesel brought in Edward's train, and it was coupled up. Little did anyone know, Diesel didn't couple a brake van, and he was in the back. Diesel's driver blew a whistle, and Edward left. "See you later!" Edward shouted to everyone in the yards. But, Philip and Stafford were confused. "Was that Diesel on the back?" Asked Philip. "I think so." Stafford replied. Going down the line, Diesel was waiting to see if Edward had done something bad. "Hey!" Diesel whispered to an old truck in front of him. "What do ye want?" Asked the old truck. "I was trying to sleep." "Has Edward ever caused any major trouble?" Diesel questioned. The truck kind of gave a confused look. "Well... I worked in Scotland for most of me life, so I really don't know. Why would ye even want to know?" Not seeing the harm in telling the truth, Diesel simply said "I want to get him in trouble." The old truck gave Diesel a look that couldn't be good. "Hey, lads! This diesel was trying to get Edward into trouble!" Edward had to get the last goods to Maron, and was going up Gordon's Hill, but he was concerned by the volume. "Is everything alright?" He asked, but before they could reply, the trucks broke loose. "I can't get a break, can I?" Edward muttered. The trucks pushed Diesel down the hill and through Wellsworth. Luckily, a signalman saw Diesel and diverted him onto a siding, derailing the train. "Serves ye right." Spat the old truck. Edward pulled into Wellsworth, along with Henry. Stepping down from the latter engine was Sir Topham Hatt and Edward's guard. "Diesel!" Boomed Sir Topham Hatt. "Uh oh." Diesel said. Sir Topham Hatt stormed up to Diesel, he was furious. "I have had enough of you coming to this railway and trying to sabotage my engines! You are a disgrace to your railway, and I will make sure that you never come to my railway again!" He shouted, and he walked back onto Henry. "We will get you back onto the rails, and Murdoch will be taking you back to the Mainland. Edward, take the rest of this day off, this is bound to be a stressful moment for you." With that, Henry steamed away, and Edward just stared at Diesel, looking heartbroken. "Edward, please!" Diesel pleaded. "You need to tell your controller that I am useful." Edward quietly said "...I'm sorry Diesel, I always welcomed you, but you have always been such an insolent brat, and I've been the reason you come back, because I convince Sir Topham Hatt to give you another chance. But, your chances are done. Goodbye, and good luck." With that, Edward left. By the time of nightfall, Edward and BoCo were in a shed at Wellsworth, Edward knew the engines at Tidmouth would gossip about Diesel. After a long silence, BoCo asked a question, "So he's never coming back?" "Yeah, Sir Topham Hatt's said that for the fourth or fifth time now, but he seemed serious this time." Edward replied. "I still feel like there's good in him, though." "Are you sure?" BoCo asked. "Yes." Edward finished, and he eventually dozed off. That night, Edward heard voices in his head, saying things like "The mistake", "You can't hide forever", and "Number 2". Edward then had a nightmare, it was a past memory that he could never forget. AREA UNKNOWN, 1897 "What did you do?!" "I'm sorry! He was in the way, and-" "Help me!" "Darn it, number 1!" "Get me out, please!" "Just stay calm, number 2! We'll get you out!" "Uh, sir?" "WHAT?!" "...the incinerator's sealed shut." TO BE CONTINUED... Characters *Thomas *Edward *Henry *James *Emily *Murdoch *Diesel *BoCo *Philip *Stafford *Sir Topham Hatt *Gordon (Does not speak) *Percy (Cameo) *Stanley (Cameo) *Ryan (Cameo) *Paxton (Mentioned) Trivia *The original plot was to have Diesel doing things that would of gotten the other engines in trouble. *The ending is leads directly into Saving Diesel. *Paxton's accident was in early versions of the script, but was later removed. Category:Sudrian Stories Category:Episodes Category:Sudrian Stories Episodes Category:Sudrian Stories - Season 1